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Tuesday, December 2, 2014

CDC Says It Will Actively Monitor 65,250 Ebola Exposed Travelers Entering The USA Per Year

The CDC has notified the Office of Management and Budget that CDC expects to actively monitor 65,250 at risk Ebola travelers entering the USA per year. Obviously CDC came to this number by counting the number of travelers that have already entered the USA in the last 3 months and projecting it out to 12 months.

Reverse engineering CDC's projection, 16,313 Ebola exposed travelers have entered the USA since the Ebola outbreak began. Clearly such a large number of potentially Ebola infected travelers undergoing active monitoring for 21 days creates a huge risk and manpower requirement. To that end, CDC is creating a daily robo-call system to contact these people (in both French and English) everyday for 21 days.

"CDC is also requesting the incorporation of a telephonic, automated
survey administered either through Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
phone system which asks travelers if they have developed a fever or any
other symptoms potentially indicative of Ebola exposure (OMB Control No
0920-1034). This system is used to assist states in actively monitoring
those travelers from Ebola affected countries for 21 days after
arrival. The additional burden requested for the use of the IVR system
is 91,350 hours."

No matter which way CDC attempts to cut it, the Ebola response is currently overwhelming the CDC. Automating aspects of the response may serve to lessen some of that burden, but it comes at the cost of reduced quality and increased risk as as anyone who has ever had to press 1 to hold for a human on an automated voice service system knows,